Page 45

The driver clears his throat.

I lift my head. Maggie’s lips are parted. Her cheeks are flushed. Her hair has fallen forward over one shoulder, and she looks at me like she has forgotten there is anyone else in the car.

I almost tell the driver to keep driving. I almost put her on my lap right there and make her say my name, or the only name I have given her, against my mouth until the windows fog.

Instead, I force myself back by an inch. Only an inch.

My hand stays on her waist. She looks down at it, then up at me.

“You’re trying very hard,” she whispers.

“Yes.”

“Is it working?”

“No.”

Her smile is quick and dangerous.

I kiss it off her.

This time her fingers go to my collar. She pulls me toward her with both hands, and the motion does something to me. Something old and male and not civilized. I want her under me. I want that green top gone. I want my mouth on every place she is pretending I have not already noticed.

The car slows. What the fuck?

I tear my mouth from hers and look out. A hotel entrance. Glass doors. Warm lobby light. A brass sign I don’t bother reading.

I’m annoyed before the car has fully stopped. The driver puts it in park and glances into the mirror with a smirk he’s not smart enough to hide.

“You told me the nearest hotel,” he says.

I scowl at the driver.

Maggie presses her lips together like she’s trying not to laugh.

I pay through the app, then open the door. The cold air hits us again, but it does nothing useful. I’m still hard, still wound tight, still aware of the shape of her mouth and the heat of her hand on my thigh.

Maggie slides out after me.

This time I don’t pretend. My hand goes to the small of her back first, then lower as I guide her toward the entrance. My fingers press against her ass again, more deliberate now, and she inhales.

“D,” she says under her breath.

One letter. That’s all she has.

It shouldn’t affect me like it does.

I bend slightly, close to her ear. “Walk.”

She does.

The lobby is too bright. That’s my only complaint.

A man in a navy suit stands behind the desk. He looks up, professional smile already in place.

“One room,” I say.

Maggie stands beside me, close enough that her sleeve brushes mine.